Advanced Financial Services

Saddle-up for another “Canadian prize award cowboy” letter.

Advanced Financial Services claims that you are a designated recipient of a guaranteed cash payment in the $10,000 Worldwide Publicity Award Draw.

Just send the “nominal processing and assurance fee” of $39.95 to receive your “stunning enamelled gold plated heart pendant set with a genuine hand-cut and polished 9 pt. diamond on a 18-inch gold plated chain”.

There is nothing genuine or unique about this offer. It used to be peddled under the brand Goode, Walker & Company and is one in a series of scam letters courtesy of the “Canadian prize award cowboy”.

This operator has been using the same hook to lasso consumers for years.

The letter gives the impression that you have won $10,000 but you are not guaranteed anything – but the princely sum of US$1.

The fine print states that the winners are pre-selected (from a mailing list) prior to the mail-out and need to respond to win the money. This is a very unusual way to conduct a competition and there is no mention of what happens to the money if the winner does not respond!

In order to justify the statement that you are a “guaranteed cash award recipient”, this cowboy gives every respondent US$1.

The fine print also states that this promotion (presumably with the same prize draw) could be sent under different “creative representations” (i.e. different letters using different company names).

It begs the question: if the jewellery was worth anywhere near $40, why the need to trick people into buying it?

Read more about the “Canadian prize award cowboy” and how to get off their mailing list by clicking here.